Using the Flare Portal to Stake#

The Flare Portal is a dapp developed by Flare Network that enables you to earn rewards by staking your $FLR in your MetaMask wallet to validators on the Flare network.

Alternatively, you can use the FlareStake command-line interface or the FlareStake, the GUI tool for staking to stake.

Staking works by locking funds for a period of time to support a specific network validator. When validator owners stake to their own nodes they self-bond, whereas all other participants are said to delegate their stake to that validator. Note that delegating your stake to a validator is different from FTSO delegation.

Participants choose how much to stake and for how long their stake will be locked. The minimum values are:

At the end of every reward epoch, participants are rewarded according to how well their chosen validator performed in that period.

The deployment phases summary shows other rewards that staked funds can still earn while they are locked.

Given that the Flare network uses two independent underlying chains, there is one extra step that must be considered. Funds must be transferred from the C-chain, where smart contracts run, to the P-chain, where staking happens. After the staking period expires and funds are unlocked, they can be transferred back to the C-chain.

Staking Guide for MetaMask#

If you do not have MetaMask installed, follow the MetaMask guide to set it up to manage Flare assets.

1. Enable Your Staking Account#

Flare uses two chains, the C-chain and the P-chain. Staking is done on the P-chain, so you need an account on this chain to serve as your staking account. Establishing this account costs only the transaction fee.

1. Open the Flare Portal, and click Staking in the top navigation bar.
2. Check for your staking address, which is an address on the P-chain, in the middle of the Staking window. If your staking address is already displayed, go to Step 2. Otherwise, continue to enable your staking account.
3. Click Enable beside the Staking address field. The Enable staking account window prompts you to verify the transaction before you complete it in MetaMask. You do not need to verify it, and you can close the window.
4. In the open MetaMask window, click Confirm to complete the transaction to enable the account. Your new staking address is displayed in the middle of the Staking information window.

2. Enable Eth_sign requests#

The transactions to stake your $FLR require a form of blind signing.

When you blind sign a transaction, the data relevant to your transaction is encoded, which makes it unintelligible. This lack of complete transparency makes blind signing a risky procedure because it exposes your wallet to various types of attack. Unfortunately, blind signing is the procedure because of the way the P-chain, which is inherited from Avalanche, is designed to sign transactions.

To mitigate these risks, you will verify the transactions using a verification tool. After initiating a transaction, you will copy the transaction data and paste it into the verification tool, which decodes the data and displays several specific parameters of each transaction.

You will compare the decoded data with the data provided by MetaMask to ensure they are identical to each other. To complete this type of transaction, you must enable the Eth_sign requests setting in MetaMask.

1. Open the MetaMask browser extension and unlock your MetaMask wallet with your password.
2. Click the vertical three-dot menu and click Settings.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Locate Eth_sign requests, and toggle the switch to ON. The Use at your own risk warning message is displayed.
5. Read the warning message, click the checkbox to indicate that you understand the risks, and then click Continue.
6. Type the statement the message prompts you to type, and click Enable. Eth_sign requests is enabled.

3. Move Funds to the P-chain#

Transfers between chains are made of two operations: an export from the C-chain followed by an import to the P-chain. Therefore, you are asked to confirm TWO transactions on your hardware wallet.

When transferring from the C-chain to the P-chain, transaction fees are wholly paid from the C-chain. Make sure you leave enough funds on the C-chain after the transfer, or it will fail.

1. In the Flare Portal, in the Staking tab, click Deposit.

2. In the Amount to deposit field, specify the amount of $FLR from your main account that you want to deposit into your staking account, and click Deposit. The Deposit funds window is displayed to begin the export transaction.

   As an additional security measure, verify all transactions when using blind signing as follows:

   Transaction Verification

   1. Install npm, the Node package manager. You only need to do this once.
   2. In the Deposit funds window, click Copy unsigned transaction.

   3. Open a terminal window, and run the Flare Transaction Verification Tool by issuing:

      npx @flarenetwork/flare-tx-verifier INPUT
      

      where INPUT is the transaction information you copied in the previous step.

      The verification process is run, and the details of the transaction are displayed. For example:

      network: "Flare Mainnet"
      description: "Export from C-chain"
      recipients: ["flare1a9aduj4xv5ptrz35xwd5zmr3a7c9ar4vq7j7cn"]
      values: ["0.501 FLR"]
      fee: 0.00034813 FLR
      warnings: []
      messageToSign: "0x2330e2bbd17ebedb1142c4d17a9a01457ec60323baef20a964f8106ad0c3ebe3"
      

   4. Locate the messageToSign value and compare it to the value of the message in the Signature request window in MetaMask.

      Continue the process only if both values match.

3. In MetaMask, click Sign. MetaMask issues a message to warn you that your funds might be at risk.

4. Click Sign again. After the transaction is confirmed, the import operation begins, and you are required to sign another transaction.
5. In MetaMask, click Sign. MetaMask issues a message to warn you that your funds might be at risk.
6. Click Sign again. After the second transaction is confirmed, the Available funds field should reflect the new amount. If not, refresh the page.

4. Stake Your Funds#

To stake funds, delegate them to an existing validator.

1. Identify the validator to which you will stake your funds by reviewing validator data on sites like FlareMetrics, flare.builders, SolidiFi, or the Flare Validator Tracker, for example, and record its NodeID.
2. In the Staked funds field, click Stake. In the Amount to stake field, specify the amount of your available funds that you want to stake. The minimum amount is 50000 $FLR.
3. In the Stake until field, specify the date and time on which you want to unstake your funds. Be mindful of the 14-day minimun duration.
4. From the Validator node dropdown menu, select the NodeID for the validator to which you want to stake.

5. Click Stake. Before staking can occur, you must sign several transactions.

   Transaction Verification

   It is highly recommended that you verify all transactions using the Transaction Verification procedure described in the box above.

After the transactions are confirmed, your funds are staked to the validator you specified.

5. Disable Eth_sign requests#

Because of the potential risks previously described, turn off Eth_sign requests after your funds are staked. Do not make any transactions outside the Flare Portal without first turning off Eth_sign requests. To locate the Eth_sign requests setting, see step 2.

Staking Guide for WalletConnect, Coinbase Connect, and Other Wallets#

If your wallet supports the Eth_sign transaction method, you can stake your funds with it on the Flare Portal. Otherwise, you must use either FlareStake GUI or the FlareStake CLI to stake your funds.